Direct Primary Care is just regular primary care with a couple of basic twists to enhance care and the the doctor-patient relationship. One, you pay your doctor directly, by way of a monthly subscription. They don't bill your insurance for office visits so there is no co-pay, co-insurance, or deductible. There's also no surprise billing. Two, direct primary care doctors see fewer patients per day and have far fewer patients in their patient panel overall. This means your doctor generally has more time for you during office visits and more time in-between visits to work on your healthcare in the background. The goal is a more relaxed, less pressure, doctor-patient relationship that puts you at the center of your care. It also allows the doctor to be able to work for you directly, rather than being pressured by third-party payors. Beside all that, there are a few other items that are often offered in DPC doctor practices such as in-office prescription dispensing, affordable cash-pay pricing relationships for certain lab imaging centers, and other enhanced access features. Research has shown direct primary care style practices have happier physicians and more satisfied patients.

Overall, it's a win-win.

Direct Primary Care (DPC) offers a proven edge over traditional fee-for-service primary care. With a flat monthly fee, DPC eliminates insurance hassles, allowing unlimited access to your physician for routine visits, preventive care, and acute needs—often with same-day appointments and extended visit times. Studies show DPC reduces hospitalizations by up to 50% and cuts overall healthcare costs by 20-30% through better chronic disease management and fewer specialist referrals. Patients enjoy personalized care, stronger doctor-patient relationships, and no surprise bills, making DPC a cost-effective, patient-centered alternative to the rushed visits and high deductibles of fee-for-service models.

Notes:

Evidence: The hospitalization reduction (e.g., 50%) and cost savings (20-30%) are based on studies like those from the American Academy of Family Physicians and Qliance (a DPC pioneer), though exact figures vary.

In short: As many primary care office visits, texts, emails, and phone calls that you need.

Includes services such as:

Yearly annual wellness checkup and physical. Comprehensive chronic condition diagnosis and management.

Acute and Urgent Care when needed.

Preventative Care and Health Maintenance.

Cancer Screening guidance and navigation. Emotional support from a caring doctor.

Mental health diagnosis, assistance, help with management (referral when needed).

Basically, everything you normally get from your primary care doctor. Includes enhanced access: Having the same doctor and a small team support staff that "knows you".

Convenient scheduling with goal to see you in a quick time-frame.

After-hours access to Dr. Youga via text and phone calls (put him on speed dial).

Extended, 30 to 60 minute office visits when needed.

Education and advice for general health questions and medical topics that you are interested in.

Health coaching via personalized discussions and email conversations.

Telemedicine visits, when needed.

Also:

No co-pays.

No % co-insurance.

No deductible.

No surprise bills for office calls.

Just call us at 614-300-5450. Talk to a real person and we will help get you enrolled.

Currently, Sovereign Direct Primary Care is a new medical practice, but to be clear, Dr. Youga is not a new doctor. He has over 24+ years of experience in family practice/primary care, hospital medicine, ER medicine, urgent care, and nursing home care. But because Sovereign DPC is new and we need to get our name out, we are offering "early adopter pricing", so there are few things that are quite labor intensive and involve significant risk that would not be appropriate for this pricing model. First, we are currently not accepting any cases that would require chronic (which generally means long-term (i.e., more than just a few days)) controlled substance prescription management (such as ongoing or recurrent medications for chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia/sleeplessness, ADHD care, and substance abuse treatment). Second, for this pricing model, we are not offering weight loss medication management. We may consider other approaches to controlled substance prescription management for select conditions in the future, once we have a safe and comprehensive program to do so. Finally, we will be offering a medical weight loss program in the near future, but this will have its own pricing structure, due to the added work and involvement in your success. On another note, be aware that although Direct Primary Care is generally thought of as "unlimited" office visits, texts, emails, and phone calls with your doctor for the price of your subscription, there are some practical limits. We will do everything in our power to keep our patients feeling satisfied and well-cared-for. However, outliers in terms of overall use that seems to be inappropriate will need to be discussed on a case-by-case basis. We aim to treat everyone with respect and kindness, and hope for the same in return. We want win-win relationships!

You can expect very shorter wait times, extended/relaxed in-office visits, and enhanced access to your doctor. No more rushed visits or waiting weeks for an appointment. You can contact Dr. Youga via phone, text, or email.

It's tricky, but hear us out!! No, we do not bill your insurance for our services. Your subscription covers office visits, minor office-based medical procedures, texts, emails, video visits, and phone calls.

Yes, we will work with your insurance to get your pharmacy dispensed prescriptions, labs, imaging, diagnostic tests, and referrals covered. We pretty much operate like other doctors' offices in this regard.

That said, there are a few insurance scenarios that we cannot work with as part of a Direct Primary Care relationship: 1.) First, Dr. Youga is still part of the Medicare system as an "opted-in" physician and therefore currently cannot enroll Medicare beneficiaries (either straight Medicare or Medicare Advantage patients) into his DPC practice. We may consider accepting straight Medicare patients into the practice for now and for those patients we would be required, by law, to bill Medicare for services rendered, but please call to ask about availability and future plans in this regard.

2.) Second, Dr. Youga cannot enroll any Medicaid (or any commercial equivalent of the Medicaid program) into his Direct Primary Care practice. This is partly due to restrictions enforced in the Medicaid program and partly due to how Medicaid limits Dr. Youga from effectively taking care of your health.

3.) Third, Dr. Youga cannot enroll any patients that have a "Managed Care" (i.e., "HMO") type of insurance due to how these types of insurance limit Dr. Youga from effectively taking care of your health.

** Dr. Youga can enroll patients that have a PPO type of insurance however. He would be considered "out-of-network" but your subscription covers the services he provides you, so on that point, your cost would only be the monthly subscription. As long as they allow Dr. Youga to order prescriptions, tests, and referrals, we should be able to work with your insurance.

Please be aware that Direct Primary Care is NOT insurance. It is still recommended you have some form of health insurance for emergencies and major health expenditures.

In cases where you cannot obtain traditional insurance, there are some high-deductible plans and and "health share" type of arrangements to consider. We can explore those options with you if you are interested.

All patients are encouraged to have at least major medical insurance coverage.

First, this is one of the big reasons to have some type of health insurance or health coverage. Major health expenditures is one of the things for which health insurance is needed. Second, we are considering a future service arrangement and pricing tier that includes Dr. Youga visiting you in the hospital as a courtesy. We will be investigating partnerships with local hospitals for courtesy privileges so he can visit you in the hospital. Your care would still be rendered by the attending hospitalist and specialists, but Dr. Youga could be there to advocate for you and monitor your progress. Stay tuned on this, we still need to see what it's like to get courtesy privileges at local hospitals.

Dr. Youga has over 15+ years working in hospitals and supervising the care of very sick patients.

No. To be clear, there is a patient-practice/physician agreement but there is no real long-term commitment or long-term financial obligation. You may end your subscription at any time. Just give us a call and we will work with you to end the monthly billing and help transition your records to your new doctor. However, in full transparency, there is an initial registration fee that is required in exchange for getting you registered as a new patient and providing you the first office visit, which is intended to be a comprehensive visit. The initial registration fee is 3 times the amount of your monthly subscription (right now that would be $117 for the registration fee) and is non-refundable once the first office visit has commenced. As a measure of appreciation for this first one-time initial registration fee, your first 2 to 3 months of subscription fees will be waived, depending on the date of your first office visit and what billing cycle we can fit you into. This means you will get at least 2 months of subscription fees waived and up to 3 months of subscription fees waived. Billing as per our agreement will commence thereafter and recur on a monthly basis. The reason we have decided on the above is that we believe in transparency and fairness. It takes a lot of background work to enroll a new patient and see them for the first time. This helps us secure compensation for that time and work investment while allowing us to offset most or all of this cost to our subscribing members (as this is similar to what they would have paid in those 2 to 3 months of waived subscription fees).

If you get sick on vacation, don't worry – we're here to help. We can work closely with you virtually to manage your symptoms and provide guidance. As long as your condition is safe and doesn't require hospitalization, we'll do our best to take care of you remotely and ensure you get the support you need.

That said, if you are physically present in a another state when you need certain care, there may be some state licensing restrictions beyond our control. However, we will do our utmost to help you get the care you need, wherever you are.

Right now, we are NOT providing the prescription and management of "chronic" controlled medications. This classification of medications include controlled medications (as determined by the DEA) for chronic pain management, chronic anxiety, sleeplessness/insomnia, ADHD, and substance abuse treatment. For clarification, "chronic" generally means long-term, ongoing, or recurrent. In the future, we may offer this type of care for certain, limited select conditions, but only inasmuch as Dr. Youga's experience and expertise would allow to provide beneficial care. But the terms of any future agreement, subscription fees, and so forth regarding this type of care will need to be adjusted to reflect the work, risk, professional expertise, and burden this type of management entails.

We firmly are aware of the opioid epidemic and our hearts go out to those with chronic pain and those with opioid use disorder. We do not believe opioids are the best treatment for chronic pain and we do believe that prescription of opioids for chronic pain has contributed to the opioid epidemic, though there are other factors as well. We may provide some form of substance abuse treatment for opioid use disorder in the future, but this will be a big project, subject to careful consideration.

All that said, there are appropriate uses for the limited, infrequent, short-term use (i.e., 3 days supply or less) of certain controlled medications in patients with which we have an established relationship and there is an ACUTE and NEW legitimate medical reason for certain medications (such as a new broken bone or requirement of a limited supply of medication for a new major anxiety inducing event). This is a on a case-by-case basis and requires an existing healthy, positive, doctor-patient relationship.

We appreciate your understanding of this complicated and sensitive subject.

Having a trusting relationship with a primary care doctor is important. You never know when you will need one more than you think you do and it's always best to have an established relationship. We offer health coaching and education to help you continue to improve your health. One of the benefits to our members is being able to ask as many questions as you like regarding any health topic that interests you. Your care is not tied to office visits either. Just text, email, or call when something comes up. We also provide telemedicine visits as part of your care.

Once you have established with us and we have completed our first in-office visit, we are happy to conduct visits with you via telemedicine. This can be video visits, phone calls, texts, and emails. Our goal is to be convenient and hassle free.

Yes, you can re-enroll.

There will be a re-enrollment registration fee however and this will be substantially more than the initial registration fee.

This policy is to allow leeway to those who change their mind but also to avoid us being taken advantage of those who would try to "game" the subscription basis of our practice.

Yes, $39 per month is well below concierge subscription fees (which are usually around $150/month) and local market rates for Direct Primary Care (which is usually around $70 to $150/month in the Columbus area). Our rate is an "introductory" rate for early adopters of our services. We are the "new kid on the block" so it's natural that we have to get our name out there. This introductory rate helps us do that. For those willing to invest in us early on, we will honor this subscription rate for the life of their subscription with our company, as long as they keep it in good standing and no lapses in subscription. This is our thank you for helping us when we are small and trying to get off the ground. That said, even though Sovereign DPC is new, Dr. Youga has over 24 years in clinical care and experience. He has done everything from primary care to hospital care to ER care to nursing home care. Sovereign DPC is Dr. Youga's dream right now and we are hoping to partner with you to make it a reality. Right now, the $39 per month rate is very limited to less than a few handfuls of patients. Once we have met our internal goal, we will be raising the subscription price to the next phase of promotional rates.

Right now, in order to keep it simple and as low cost as possible for everyone, we have one simple low-cost subscription for all early adopters. We also are narrowing our age range for enrollees to be between 18 and 64 years old. We may offer pediatric and senior services in the future. But right now we want to keep things as streamlined as possible.

Right now, as long as they are an early adopter, we are offering these low rates to everyone. If you have some specific arrangement or proposal, we are always open to conversation. Please call us at 614-300-5450.

Dr. Youga will cover his own patients via phone, text, and email, even while out of town. He may take up to a few weeks per year vacation but you can still contact him. Obviously, during these times he would not be available for office visits. We believe this arrangement is better than having an "on-call" doctor who you don't know (and doesn't know you) take care of you.